Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci (born
January 24,
1940) is a
New York-based
architect,
landscape architect, and
installation artist.
Acconci began his career as a
poet, editing
0 TO 9 with
Bernadette Mayer in the late
1960s. Acconci transformed himself into a
performance and
video artist in the late 1960s and early
1970s, using his own body as a subject for
photography,
film,
video, and
performance. His performance and video work was marked heavily by
confrontation and
Situationism. In the mid 1970s, Acconci expanded his metier into the world of audio/visual installations.
One noted installation/performance piece from this period is
Seedbed (January
1972). In
Seedbed Acconci lay hidden underneath a gallery-wide ramp installed at the
Sonnabend Gallery,
masturbating while vocalizing into a loudspeaker his fantasies about the visitors walking above him on the ramp. One motivation behind
Seedbed was to involve the public in the work's production by creating a situation of reciprocal interchange between artist and viewer.
During the
1980s he invited viewers to create artwork by activating machinery that erected shelters and signs. He also turned to the creation of furniture and to prototypes of houses and gardens in the late 1980s.
More recently, the artist has worked with the
Architecture Association and focused on architecture and landscape design that integrates public and private space. One example of this is "Walkways Through the Wall," which flow through structural boundaries of the
Midwest Airlines Center in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin and provide seating at both ends.
*
Murinsel*
The artist's website (acconci.com).
*
Guide to the 0 TO 9 archive from the Fales Library at NYU.
*
Artist's page in Artfacts.Net with actual major exhibitions.
*
An appreciation of Acconci by critic Jerry Saltz.
